


Summertime

by mirasen



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: AoKaga Day, Bittersweet, M/M, Post-Apocalypse, aokagaexchange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-10
Updated: 2015-05-10
Packaged: 2018-03-29 23:07:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3914071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mirasen/pseuds/mirasen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He almost killed him, when they first met after five years.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Summertime

**Author's Note:**

  * For [superpol](https://archiveofourown.org/users/superpol/gifts).



summertime

 

It was hot. Unbearably hot.

 

Summer had come fast and ruthless. The earth was dry beneath one's shoes and the sky cloudless and wide. Swallows caught insects in high altitudes. It could have been a wonderful day.

Kagami wiped sweat off his forehead, his hair sticking to it, and he shook his head. Little drops of sparkling sweat flew through the air. The sun was at its peak right now and Kagami had taken shelter in the shadow of a big tree with cool woods behind him. Looking down the little hill he was on he saw his next destination: A small town.

 

He sighed. He was hungry, and he was alone. This sucked.

 

As Kagami looked over the sun-burnt landscape, the heat flickering over the little town, he got lost in his thoughts. Spacing out, his eyes fixated on an unseen point over the roofs of the houses. Cicadas chirped and lulled him in even more. He could almost hear the sound of a dribbling ball in the heat, the tapping of shoes on hot concrete, the harsh breathing and dripping sweat.

 

A shot ripped him out of his memories. Someone screamed, high-pitched and afraid. Kagami jumped to his feet, his ax in his hand, ready to strike. Nearly 200 meters away a person stumbled out of the woods, holding a gun at something that was still hidden by the trees. Not much later a monstrous stag burst out. His antlers were much too big, his head hanging down at an odd angle due to the weight, patches of fur missing. Everything about it just looked grotesque. Like they always did.

The person in danger shot one, two, three times but the stag didn't stop until it pierced his victim with multiple prongs.

Kagami needed to leave and leave quickly. He grabbed his backpack, threw it over his shoulder, and ran down the hill towards the city.

 

Fifteen minutes later he was safe inside the town. The stag hadn’t seemed interested in him, but you could never be too careful or before you knew it, a mutated monster would make you its midday snack.

 

After a quick scan of his surroundings (nice streets, little houses with front yards, many doors wide open; scavengers had been here, but now everything was quiet with dried leaves scattered around. The town was abandoned.) Kagami went on, ax heavy in his hands. The weight felt safe. It calmed him. As he walked down the streets the only sounds he could hear were his own footsteps and the cries of cicadas. The sun burnt mercilessly down on him. He needed a hat or something, or he would get sunstroke.

He chose a house that looked the least dangerous and headed for it. White walls, dried up front yard, seemingly empty. As Kagami entered the building carefully his evaluation rendered correct: the house was quiet and empty. Unfortunately for him it had already been looted. Every cupboard was wide open and empty, every valuable thing seemed to be stolen. Kagami cursed under his breath. He just needed a cloth or something. Some sheets, anything. But clothes and fabrics were valued highly in this world now, so they were gone fast.

  
Without finding anything helpful, Kagami left the house again after a quick walkthrough. With a heavy heart he decided to slice up one of his t-shirts so he could tie it around his head as an improvised hat. At least it would block the sun a little.

After that it was back to his original objective: He needed to find a pharmacy.

 

After a half hour walk in the heat of midday, he encountered a little store with an inbuilt pharmacy. Hopefully he could find something useful, even if it was just scraps.  
Since the whole town had been vacant up until now he entered the shop without any care, glad that it was a little cooler than outside. Sadly, inside looked like everywhere else, robbed and empty. Kagami searched for the hell of it and found two bandaids on the floor. He always could use that!

His ax was leaning against a shelf when he felt a cold barrel press against his neck. He froze.

“Give me the ax!” a dark voice commanded. Kagami felt his heart drop down into his stomach but his adrenaline shooting up high in his blood. He wouldn't give anyone his weapon! Carefully he reached for the ax, but the gun pressed harder into his skin. “Don't do anything stupid!” the voice snarled.

Well, fuck that.

Kagami grabbed the handle, leapt to the side, and whirled around, ready to kill before he got killed and-

 

“Aomine?!” - “Kagami?!”

 

-

 

Kagami handed his old basketball rival a cool bottle of water which Aomine took happily and chugged down quickly. “Thirsty, huh?”  
“My next stop was going to be a river.” Aomine answered tersely and handed the empty bottle back, wiping his mouth. Kagami took out his other bottle of water and drank a little himself. He leaned against the wall of the shop next to the entrance while Aomine sat on the stairs in front of it. The blinds cast a porous shadow on them.

 

It was strange seeing his rival after such a long time in this kind of environment, in this kind of world. He looked the same as five years ago, except he didn't.

Of course he was still tall and dark and had the same blue hair, though his bangs were longer now – keeping the same hairstyle with mutants around was a bit tricky. Besides the hair, his muscles didn't look like they came from playing too much basketball anymore. Just like Kagami's, they came from simply trying to survive, fighting for food and shelter. Kagami wished they still came from playing too much basketball, from hours of streetball under the burning sun or in pouring rain. Quickly he pushed this thought aside. What was it worth thinking about now?

 

“You alone?” Aomine asked without looking up. His blue eyes were looking down the streets, always watching.  
“Yeah.” he answered. “You?”  
Aomine nodded slowly, and that was all they had to say about that.

 

-

 

Somehow they silently decided to stick together. Staying alone was always a bad idea, and it was only common sense to form a group. You never knew when you needed someone backing you up, and sleeping while somebody else was on the watch had the wonderful trait of being actually relaxing.

 

With Aomine though... let's say, it was different.

 

“Why am I being on watch again? You slept the whole night and I barely slept three hours!” Kagami stood beside a kneeling Aomine who fanned the flames for the night.

  
“Well,  _I_ hunted our dinner for today and you.. oh wait, what did you hunt again? Ah, yes, berries!”

 

Kagami wanted to wipe the grin that Aomine shot him away with his fist.  “And who built the trap we caught the rabbit in?” he spat.  


Aomine stood and made himself bigger so he could look down on Kagami now. Kagami hated it when he did that. He clenched his fists harder and automatically held his chin higher.

 

“Who _killed_ the rabbit and gutted it?” Aomine almost sounded bored, but his expression said otherwise. He was being challenged.

 

“And how would you have fucking killed and gutted it without my trap?! If I remember correctly, you said that my trap wouldn't work at all yesterday, and look where we are now!”

 

Kagami could see Aomine's jaw working, his blue eyes narrowed to slits. Kagami's mouth split into a wide grin and he crossed his arms confidently.  
“I'd say it's your watch first. Get the fire going.” As he pointed to the dying flame with his chin he heard the little branch in Aomine's fist snap in half.

 

“You're gonna regret this tomorrow when I get you a whole deer for dinner!”

 

“Well, I hope you do because I'm hungry as fuck!”

 

-

 

They were together for four days when they discovered a river fairly near the town they met in. Finally, they could fill their water supplies, wash themselves and their clothes, and relax for a moment.

The water was cool between Kagami's toes as he sat on the stone bank. He leaned back on his hands, supporting himself on the warm pebbles as held his face towards the sun. Like this, he could enjoy the heat.

 

Aomine, on the other hand, didn't relax.

 

“You sure this thing'll work?” Kagami called out to the young man kneeling beside the river. He was barefoot as well, his trousers rolled up to his knees and revealing long slim legs. Their color looked nice in the sun.

As an answer to Kagami's question, Aomine just shot him a look and threw the long stick he had worked on at Kagami's feet. Then he took the other stick that lay by his side and performed the same method on it as on the first one: He took a sharp stone, the lace of one of his shoes, and with skilled hands secured the stone tightly to the end of the stick with a sharp tug. Once he was satisfied with his work, he gave a small, proud smile and stood.  
“How about we just try it?” he said to Kagami and walked slowly into the river.

 

Kagami considered watching Aomine first, but as soon as the dark skinned man stood in the thigh deep water with a broad stance, spear in the air, eyes focused on the water searching for fish, he couldn't stand sitting and doing nothing.  
“I'll get more than you, just you watch!” he shouted and jumped to his bare feet. “Just don't break a leg, idiot!” was the comeback and Kagami grinned. He picked up the spear and followed his companion into the river but stood a few meters away from him.

 

And then they waited.

 

Kagami quickly discovered that catching fish wasn't as easy as it sounded. They were fast, slippery and he needed to stand very still. What he also discovered really quickly was that Aomine Daiki was still the little shit he had been five years ago.  
  
“Are you ANY good at this, Kagami?” he laughed when Kagami fell into the river while chasing a fish. The redhead sputtered water as he rose out of the stream again. Dripping wet, he stood there and tried to free himself of some of the water by wringing out his shirt and shaking his head. This sucked! Aomine had already caught thee fish and all he did was fall and curse loudly.  
Kagami glared at the other man who was grinning smugly and considered just throwing his spear at this asshole instead. He decided against it and simply fished the stick from the riverbed. Aomine should be happy that Kagami was a decent human being!  


With another swift movement, Aomine caught a fourth fish and held it up proudly before throwing it onto the river bank. “You weren't sure the spears would work, huh?” he mocked. “So…'look where we are now'!” The smugness was almost tangible in the air between them and Kagami only glared harder.

 

In a sudden childish rage he used his spear to splash water at Aomine, who gaped at him in horror while little sparkling drops fell down from his face. “You..” the man growled. Kagami only shrugged.  
“You looked too hot. Wanted to cool you down.”

Kagami didn't realize what he had said until a fucking smug grin split Aomine's lips again. “Too hot, hah?” he said in his deep voice which made the hair on the back of Kagami's neck rise. “Just admit that you're totally into me, Kagami. I can understand that, I mean-”

 

Aomine's next words were drowned by the water Kagami threw him into but when he surfaced he still had the nerve to grin. The waterfight that ensued after that was wet, childishly loud, and.. fun.

 

Their voices echoed down the stream:

“That's not what I-”

“But you did, idiot! Let go off my-”

“-gah you fucki-”

Water splashed all around them and soon they were both soaked in water. Kagami and Aomine had no intentions of stepping down until they both stood in the middle of the river, chests heaving, water dripping down, wet hair sticking to their foreheads. And both of them grinning.

 

Suddenly, Aomine visibly relaxed and let his guard down. He pushed his bangs out of his eyes and sighed. “Ahh, that was refreshing.” Without looking at Kagami he walked past him towards their things on the bank. “I'm hungry, let's eat the fish before they rot in the sun,” he called out without looking back.  
Kagami straightened his back, took a deep breath, and let it out with a content sigh. When he walked out of the water, the hot pebbles were comfortable warm under his water-cold feet and the sun slowly dried his clinging clothes. It felt nice. He felt nice.

 

While Aomine sparked the fire for their meal, Kagami disemboweled and prepped the fish with his hunting knife. For each of them there were two fish.

 

And they tasted like the best thing Kagami had in years.

 

-

 

Some nights they sat together at the fire. The air was cooler and more pleasant with the sun gone, but both of them were unable to sleep with too many thoughts in their heads.

 

They were staring into the crackling branches when Kagami began to speak.

“Can you believe it's already been five years?”  
  
“Huh.”  
  
“I mean.. it's been really long right? In the beginning I still thought it would all come together again, the government would fix this mess, the world would fix it. But.. this war. It just...” he trailed off.

 

“It destroyed everything.” Aomine ended the sentence for him and poked the fire with a stick so that sparks flew into the air. “Now the government workers are rival gangs in the cities. Isn't that why you don't get close to cities?” Blue eyes fixed on Kagami who nodded. The gang wars were even more horrible than the radiation. He knew if he got closer to a Dead Point, a point where one of the bombs hit, he was more likely to die soon of radiation poisoning. But since he wasn't part of a gang, closer to a Dead Point was still safer than entering a city.

 

“I've just..” Kagami went on. “Sometimes I don't remember what it was like before anymore. I mean.. the radiation, the mutants, Dead Points, all those dead.. people... I just don't-”

 

“Maybe you should just stop racking your brain about it. You’ll get a headache, your head's not made for thinking.” Aomine interrupted and Kagami felt his blood flare up.  
“WHAT DID YOU SAY??” he yelled, but Aomine simply ignored him and lay down on his bed made of leaves.  
  
“Your watch first,” his companion said and closed his eyes, ending the debate. And Kagami knew by now that he wouldn't get a word out of Aomine if the man acted like this. So he forced himself to calm down and quietly began to watch over the two of them.

 

A few hours later they switched places and Kagami stretched himself out on his roll mat with a yawn. As soon as he closed his eyes he was gone.

 

He awoke hours later in a cold sweat. Trembling and confused, he reached out for his ax, red eyes scanning his surroundings frantically. “Alex..!” he whispered. He had forgotten something, he had to get to her, he had to-

 

“Kagami?”

 

A deep, familiar voice snapped him out of his nightmare. Slowly, it faded and reality sank in. His trembling stopped and was replaced with the warm air of the night. Confused and worried blue eyes steadied him and he grabbed for a calming hand, not even minding that his own was cold and sweaty. Another hand worked open the death grip on his weapon and the ax fell down with a dull  _thump._

The hand came back to press against his chest and laid him back down onto his roll mat, the soft pressure of the other hand around his fingers never leaving him. Kagami closed his eyes and with a sigh, fell back into a dreamless sleep.

 

The next morning no one said a word about it.

 

-

 

The next two weeks they stayed together in the valley the river ran through. Kagami found out many things in those two weeks about Aomine that he wouldn't have guessed:  
He liked sleeping first and being the one awake when the sun went up. Every time Kagami woke him up he looked like he'd bitten into a lemon but his features always quickly softened. Usually he wouldn't eat much breakfast (as a contrast to Kagami's habit). When Kagami told him he had sugar he made himself tea out of herbs and added an incredible amount of sugar to it (the face he made while drinking it was pure bliss). he wouldn't go past bee hives within a distance of five meters. He carried a magazine of Mai-chan around but never looked at it (Kagami asked him about it, Aomine's face closed off and he looked bitter while mumbling, “What's the point of it now anyway..” Kagami didn't ask again). His preferred weapon was a hunting knife, and when he put on his backpack he always checked for his weapons. He had used his gun only once before. He had killed two mutants. Lastly, Aomine didn't seem to be as much of an asshole as Kagami had always thought he was.

 

-

 

The valley they were walking through was mostly empty, though sometimes they encountered an isolated, broken house. They mused that the next Dead Point couldn't be that far away. Kagami didn't care that much about it, to be honest, and Aomine seemed to feel the same since he didn't say anything about them avoiding cities. One night he had asked why Aomine was okay with it, but there hadn't been an answer.

 

On one hand the forest was good: Hunting was easier, they could stay at one place for days and even set up traps. They could rest under the shadows of the trees at midday and at night collect condensate water with a self-built mechanism that contained a stretched plastic sheet with a stone in the middle and a cup under it for catching the drops that fell down (it was Aomine's mechanism and Kagami was highly fascinated by it which had caused a smug smile on a dark face).

 

On the other hand the forest  _sucked_ :

“Those fucking mosquitoes are eating me alive!” Aomine complained and slapped his neck with one of his big hands. Kagami stopped and looked back at him, irritated.  
  


“I told you to use a shirt or cloth and wrap it around your neck and face!” His voice was muffled from his own shirt which he had once sliced up for improvising a hat and now used to protect himself from getting stung to death. The both of them were wearing long-sleeved shirts so as much of their skin was out of danger as possible, but Aomine stubbornly decided to be an idiot and didn't listen to him!  
  


“So I look like the idiot you are?” he retorted. Kagami groaned.  
“FINE! Then get eaten alive!” He turned around and walked up the stairs they had found this morning. Aomine had guessed there would be a village or something up the hill and since they had all the time in this broken world they decided to find out.

 

But when they arrived the top of the hill they found a temple.

 

It wasn't a big one, just one small house with a ragged garden in front of it, neglected by everyone so nature had grown over the barriers humans had set. The forest was cut down here. Kagami pulled down his T-Shirt so he could see better.

 

The temple seemed a little like something out of a fairytale.

 

They walked over a red bridge that led over a stinking, green pond, boiling in the summer sun.

The temple itself was in a strangely good condition, just here and there the colors were fading and the decorations coming off. Aomine voiced what Kagami was thinking: “You think they cared for it longer? Maybe it wasn't as bad here..” He stepped closer and let his hands run over the wood of the shrine.

 

“Are you religious?” Kagami seemed to have interrupted Aomine's thoughts because he saw him visibly flinching, pulling his hand back. Oddly enough, he didn't receive a glare from his companion, which left Kagami a little bewildered.

 

Aomine even answered him: “No. Satsuki used to pray before games and tests. I never got the hang of it.”

 

Kagami had already opened his mouth to say something else when he heard a sharp clap and looked to the side to see Aomine standing in front of the shrine, eyes closed and hands clasped together in a prayer. Kagami's words died in his throat and left a bittersweet taste. He couldn't help but stare for some seconds before looking away and leaving Aomine in this intimate moment.

 

He walked around the corner of the temple and found a wall full of wooden prayer tablets. The paper ones had been already destroyed by wind and weather, with only indistinguishable remnants left. Many of the writings were smudged, but some of them he could still read. One especially came into his view:

 

'Please let me pass my exams!' overwritten with red marker by 'Please let me survive this night!!' Kagami looked away.

 

His line of sight went past the temple and down the opposite side of the hill.

And there he spotted a small town which -based of the size of it- could have a pharmacy and maybe...  
  


“Oi, Aomine!” he shouted back. “What about we sleep under a roof today?”  
His companion appeared behind the corner, adjusting his backpack and checking his weapons with a pat. “Hah?” he drawled and squinted his eyes to look past Kagami. The sweat on his forehead was glistening in the sun.

 

Kagami extended his arm to point at the town. “Look! We could go search for band aids and so on. Maybe we even find some disinfectant. That’s what I was searching for the last time.”  
  
Aomine only nodded and went past him.  “Race you,”  he mumbled while passing Kagami and then fell into a light jog.

“HEY!” Kagami shouted and ran after him in a second.

 

The way down was much more difficult since there weren't any stairs. More often than not, Kagami slipped on the grass, nearly toppling over. But he wouldn't give up so easily!

 

Aomine was a little further down the hill, gracefully avoiding bigger stones and using the tree trunks as support. The picture of a dancer came to Kagami's mind, but he pushed it away.

 

Suddenly Aomine doubled up, tripped over a branch, and fell down with a soft “Oomph!”  
Kagami came to a halt by almost crashing into the next trunk. “Fuck-” he cursed and looked to the fallen person who didn't move, face down in the grass.  
“Aomine!” he called out to him. “You okay?”

 

Slowly the man rolled over and sat up. He seemed to be fine and turned his head to glare at Kagami, who let out a bark of laughter.

The whole front of Aomine's body was full of grass, leaves and dirt, especially his face, which was red as well. Maybe it was out of embarrassment, Kagami mused, which proved to be correct when he saw the pout on Aomine's lips.

When Kagami was finally done with laughing he carefully came closer to the now sitting Aomine, who strangely started to take off his right shoe.  
“What are you doing?” he asked and tried to hide his amused smile. Aomine's glare was an indicator that he was definitely failing at hiding it.  
  


Instead of an answer the shoe was held into his face, the sole coming off half the way. Kagami faltered and drew his brows together.

 

“Did you run with this the whole time?!”

 

“Nah, it really broke just now. But it was bad before.”

 

“Who's the bigger idiot here...” Kagami mumbled.

 

A memory popped up in his head about him searching for shoes, Momoi offering him Aomine's, and the one-on-one he lost, the debt he never paid.  
Kagami sat down and pulled off his own boots.

 

“What are you-”

He didn't let Aomine finish his sentence instead almost shoved his shoes into the confused face and simply said:

“For last time.”

 

The irritation on Aomine's face was easy to read but suddenly it lit up as he understood. Only to be replaced by an angry scowl.

 

“Thought we would resolve this in a match.”

 

“Do you see a basketball anywhere near?” Kagami shook his boots a little. “So? You wanna go barefoot or what?”

 

Aomine pushed his lower jaw forward before yanking the shoes out of Kagami's grip. “And what are you gonna wear?” he asked, his eyes on the boots he was currently putting on.

 

“Yours.” Kagami grabbed the wrecked shoes and, after putting them on, fixed the broken one with some duct tape. It would at least last until they were down the hill.

Aomine watched him the whole time but didn't say anything. When Kagami looked up again, blue eyes averted his gaze.

 

The following walk down the hill was slow and careful, and if Kagami looked right he could see the hint of a smile playing around the corners of Aomine's mouth. Kagami felt warm.

 

“I would have won.” Aomine suddenly said, and Kagami thought about pushing him back into the underbush.

 

-

 

Despite the taped shoe on Kagami's foot, they made their way down easily and soon found themselves in abandoned streets. Leaves and garbage were everywhere, handwritten papers of missing persons on walls, an eerie feeling tingling in the air – just like any other little town.

 

They roamed around the streets a little, searching for a house they liked until they decided on a small white one, surrounded by a plastered stone wall. Ivy climbed up the white walls of the house, decorating it green. It was one of the few with still intact windows, which was one of the reasons why they chose it.

 

The first thing to do when they got in, ax in Kagami's hand, knife in Aomine's, was making sure that the house was safe. It was messy (though not as bad as the last one, Kagami thought to himself) but as far as they knew it was free of any people and/or mutants – thus safe. With a little smile at each other, they got rid of their backpacks and mosquito-protections and finally fell down on the welcoming softness of the couch.

But as soon as their bodies touched the cushion years old dust puffed out and Kagami had to cough and sneeze immediately. Aomine stifled his laughter despite coughing a little himself, but when Kagami glared at him with red eyes open laughter filled the empty house until the blue-haired man had to hold his hurting belly.

 

Seemed like this house was perfect.

 

-

 

They searched the house for useful things later that day. Aomine inside, Kagami outside in the little garden behind the building. A small garden shed attracted his curiosity. Maybe he would find some useful tools or weapons (Aomine had once told him he wanted an ax like Kagami had, too).

 

What he found was a basketball.

 

If you had asked Kagami one day before what he would do if he'd found a basketball, he'd say that he wouldn't even touch it. Those days were gone, he wasn't in school anymore, and there were more important things than playing basketball, like surviving.

And yet.

His heart jumped.

 

The rough texture under the skin of his hands, the smell of rubber. He hadn't even noticed when he picked the ball up, it just came naturally to him. It was well used and Kagami couldn't help but smile though he felt tears well up in his eyes. He felt so happy and so sad at the same time, his heart was clenching from the opposing emotions.

 

Skillfully, he threw the ball from one hand to the other, adjusting to the familiar weight in his hands. He felt light. He threw it back one more time to his predominant right hand, turned it around so the ball fell down to the ground and prepared for it to jump back into his hand.

But it didn't. It only bounced half the way and then dropped again, not inflated enough for playing with it.

 

 

Kagami felt something dropping inside of him as well.

 

Aomine's voice suddenly broke the heavy silence: “KAGAMI! I found a bottle of water!!”

Kagami jerked up and tore his eyes from the basketball lying on the ground.

Aomine stood at the back entrance of the house, waving with said bottle. Quickly Kagami put the ball back into the shed and closed the wooden door before heading back to his companion.  
  


And it was true. There Aomine stood, bottle in his hands, eyes as sparkling like the water he was so happy about, grin wide and blinding. Kagami couldn't stop himself from returning it just as wide. In the end there never was time to mourn the lost things, they just had to move on.

 

“How..” Kagami started and Aomine was happy to comply:

“It was in the cubby next to the kitchen! Guess it fell down and nobody saw it. So..” He waved the bottle with a suggestive grin. “Let's have a drink!”

 

Kagami let out a freeing laugh and reached for the bottle, but Aomine pulled it away.  
“Nah-ah!” he said. “I found it, first sip belongs to me!” Kagami rolled his eyes but let him have his first sip. The bottle opened with a _Zish_ and Aomine's grin got wider. “It's even carbonated!” he said happily and pushed the bottle against his lips, taking long big gulps.  
  
“Oi! Leave something for me!” Kagami interrupted, and the greedy man handed him the bottle with a soft “Yeah, yeah.”

 

But as soon as the water filled Kagami's mouth and ran down his dried up throat he understood why Aomine wouldn't let go of the bottle so easily. It was refreshing, cooling and tasted nothing like the boiled river water they had drunk the last days.  
  
Kagami put the bottle down with a deep sigh and immediately Aomine took it from him.  
Red eyes wandered back to the shed, and although he had told himself to let it go his heart still hurt a bit. At least the bottle of water hadn't disappointed him.

 

Speaking of which:  
“You had enough, give it back to me!”

“Like I said, I found it, it belongs to me!”  
“We share everything, asshole!!”

 

-

 

“Rock, paper, scissors, SHOOT!”

“HAH! Paper beats rock, bed is mine.”

“One more time, one more time!!”

 

Kagami grabbed Aomine's collar, determined look in his eyes, but the other man just averted his eyes and scratched his ear with his pinky. “We said three times, I've won, and I'm tired.” He pushed Kagami's hand away and stood from the couch to go to the bedroom.

“If you're lucky you'll win tomorrow. Good night, loser!” he said without turning around and held up a hand as a gesture of parting.

 

Kagami stayed in the living room on the couch, grumbling displeased. In the end he yanked a blanket out of his backpack, put it over himself and turned to the side for sleep. The couch was still a little dusty but, hey, certainly better than the hard ground of the forest! He cuddled himself tighter into the blanket, closed his eyes and was gone in a minute.

 

A strange feeling woke Kagami up again.

His eyes slowly blinked open, wandering around the dark room to the tilted window. It was the middle of the night, he could see the crest of the moon and hear the cicadas chirping. The hair on his nape rose and his breathing got heavier, but when he checked the room quickly he could see no danger.

 

But it was missing something.

No blue eyes watching over him. Nobody sitting just a step away. The stars were hidden by concrete walls. Suddenly the house felt like it would suffocate him.

 

He heard the creak of the door, and, startled, sat up.

“It's me, calm down!” the deep, comforting voice told him and Kagami relaxed instantly. He rubbed his eyes and asked with a raspy voice, “What's it? Somethin' happened?”

 

Kagami could see Aomine shaking his head in the pale moonlight. His skin looked nice reflecting the silver light. White teeth flashed as Aomine showed a fake smile, Kagami could identify it as such straight away.

 

“Haven't slept in a house for a while, you know,” the man explained, still standing in the doorway. He scratched his ear and looked to the side. “..bed is really big..” he mumbled, sounding almost bored.

 

Kagami understood the silent question and somehow felt very relieved. “Yeah. Coming,” he answered, smiling. Aomine turned around without another word but left both doors -living and bedroom- wide open as an unspoken invitation.

 

Taking his blanket with him, Kagami followed Aomine to the big bed. The mattress was nice and soft, giving away to his weight. He tugged his blanket over himself and watched the broad back before him rising and falling with each breath. Kagami smiled and slid closer, eventually pressing his forehead against the warm back between the shoulder blades. The body before him stiffened but no word was uttered. Not even a minute later it relaxed again and Kagami heard a soft sigh.

Like this, they slept through the night.

 

-

 

Since walking with taped shoes would be a very uncomfortable problem in the future, they went to the town center the next day to get new shoes for Kagami (he had insisted that Aomine kept his).  
Gladly the town actually was deserted by humans; they only saw some deer grazing peacefully in a park or a rabbit hopping around here and there. After some searching they found a shopping center with a sports department, which would be the only place in this little Japanese town they might find shoes large enough. But even this shop only had three pairs of shoes in Kagami's size and they all were simple sport shoes.

 

“Where did you get those boots from?” Aomine asked as he looked down at the ones Kagami had given him. “Pretty good for walking around I say.”

 

“Found 'em with Alex in a fire department. That’s where I got my ax from, too.”

He sat down on a stool and took Aomine's old shoes off. They didn't talk while he was trying on the shoes so when he looked up after the second pair (the first one didn't fit at all), he expected to see Aomine next to him. Seeing nobody, Kagami panicked a little inside.  
  
He whipped his head around, hoping to find him looking for other shoes but he was nowhere to be seen.

“Fuck. AOMINE!” he shouted and stood up.

 

Suddenly he heard something falling to the ground with a loud rattling, the scream from an animal, somebody running and more screams.

One floor up, Kagami thought. He had pulled his ax out on the first scream he had heard and was already at the still escalator, taking two steps at a time.

 

But what welcomed him at the top was letting him stop all his movement.

 

The little monkey was missing a leg which yet didn't hinder it from walking freely. The right side of its face was abnormally swollen so it seemed to have only one eye that moved frantically in its socket. But as soon as Kagami came into sight the eye stopped moving and was fixed on him.

Apart from the monstrous appearance, the other problem with mutants were their abnormal aggressions. Where unmutated animals would be running from humans, mutants would straight out attack you. So that even harmless animals would suddenly go berserk.

 

Just like the macaque that immediately began to scream when he spotted Kagami and threw his whole body at the big man.

Kagami yanked his left arm up and hit the ape. It flew down to the bottom of the escalator where it crashed on the floor and stayed down, lifeless.

 

With his heart racing and his palms sweating, Kagami stared at the dead mutant for a few seconds before another horrible scream tore him out of his shock.

 

Aomine. Where was he?

 

He was at the top of the escalator with two more big steps and his eyes quickly took in his surroundings. There were more monkeys. And they all were gathered in a corner around a ball cart. Aomine had to be there.

 

And he was right: When Kagami got closer he saw Aomine under the cart. He must have pulled it over himself in an attempt to shield himself with it. The macaques were screaming and pulling at the metal, desperately trying to get closer, which was kind of convenient since they didn't realize Kagami was right behind them until he killed the first one with a brutal hit of his ax.

 

Immediately all bloodshot eyes of the mutants where on him and he stumbled back a little when they attacked. The first one he easily threw against a wall, while the second one got his ax in its head, blood spilling on his clothes. He was glad for the thick material of his trousers because one bit into his leg before he kicked it away, Kagami hoped the teeth didn't get through but he had no time to check.

He hit another monkey with the back of his ax and smashed its head in when the last one jumped at his face. It was too quick for Kagami to raise his arms and he already saw himself getting his face bitten off when a sharp shot rippled the air and the macaque fell to the ground, bright blood pooling around its body.

 

Kagami looked up from the dead animal to Aomine, gun in his hand and breathing heavily, but safe. Kagami could have cried then and there out of happiness.

But instead he hurried to his stupid companion and grabbed his collar.

“Why did you-”, he started, heart still racing, his breath puffing. He let his eyes wander over the body before him, checking for injuries and then he saw why Aomine left his side.

 

There in his other hand, knuckles white from gripping it too hard, was a ball pump.

 

Kagami didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. He decided for shouting:  
“You fucking IDIOT?! You could have get yourself killed-” His hands were roaming over the still uninjured body before him, checking more precisely. “-you could have get US killed-” He ran his fingers through the blue hair, always fearing for a red stain. “-and all that for a stupid ball pump!?”

 

Instead of answering Aomine was suddenly very close.  
Woah, was all Kagami thought, his lashes are really long and dark.

He didn't feel the soft pressure of chapped lips until it was almost gone again. Big hands grabbed the sides of Aomine's face and Kagami pressed their lips together again. No blood, no dead body, just lips pressing to his, their breath mingling and his whole body tingling at the sensation. Slowly he opened his eyes again (he didn't even remember when he had closed them) and watched the soft red color on Aomine's cheeks.

 

“You looked like a kicked puppy when you found out the ball wasn't inflated enough.” he heard the deep voice. The man looked like he was pouting and averted his eyes. Kagami grinned.

 

“You're a fucking idiot.”

 

“Well, YOU are an idiot for kissing the idiot!”, Aomine threw back, which resulted in Kagami pushing him away softly and turning around to pick up his ax he let fall to the ground before. He glanced back and saw how Aomine put the gun back in its holster before looking up. There was a softness around the blue eyes when they met red ones. Warmth spread through Kagami's body and he smiled.

 

“Let's go back. Shoes fit and I wanna beat you in an one-on-one.”

 

Aomine snorted, amused. “As if you could.”

 

-

 

It still sucked so much.

 

They both had lost too many people dear to them, they both wished the world would be back to where it had been before.  
But when Aomine passed Kagami with the ball dribbling loud on the concrete, their sweat cooling them just a little in this unrelenting sun, their smiles big and wide, free from sorrow for those rare minutes-

 

Well maybe then the world was a little whole again.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This is for Pol :D (mandraked.tumblr.com)
> 
> I combined two of your prompts, summertime and apocalypse, and I really hope you like it!  
> It's is my fist fanfiction in years, and then even in english, so please excuse any mistakes. Though it HAS been betaed by the wonderful Tory, I love you for that, thank you very much <3
> 
> I could have written even more though I think it's fine with this end and I hope you are okay with things being a bit left open to interpretation :D Maybe there's gonna be some kind of sequel/prequel, who knows!
> 
> Thank you so much for reading <3 And I would be so happy about criticism and/or tell me what part you all liked most, thanks :D


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